Starting a barbecue on the back of a pick-up truck while driving down the interstate highway is one memory of the J1 experience which Andrew Wilson, a 21-year-old UCD engineering student will probably not forget in a hurry.
Wilson, who spent the summer of 2003 in one of the traditional J1 hotspots for Irish students - Myrtle Beach in South Carolina - admits that he "maxed out" his credit card during the trip, but does not regret a moment of it.
"The wages mightn't have been great but there were no problems getting a job," he says. "I was working as a waiter, which has a low wage but good tips. I was on $2 an hour, but could earn between $80 and $100 a night in tips. The job itself was great, and not too busy. The manager was Irish, which helped too." Wilson spent the summer living in a motel located on the beachfront with five others. Frequently, after a day's work and an evening's socialising, the night would end with a swim in the sea, he says.
"That part of America, Myrtle Beach, is pretty much run by Irish students . . . The businesses bank on them coming over," he says. "The summer I was there was really the last year before the clampdown. But I suppose looking at it I can't understand why anyone wouldn't do it . . . it is definitely worth going."
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